Feds Back Away From Forced Decryption … For Now

Wired just posted an update on a high profile case involving kiddy porn and some encrypted hard drives. The suspect in the child porn case will not be forced to give up the keys to his encrypted drives. This is really a moot point because the FBI had already cracked two of his encrypted disks and found loads of child pornography. Here’s a snippet:

The hotly contested legal issue was mooted when prosecutors said the FBI cracked two of the suspect’s drives – both Western Digital My Book Essentials. They announced they found kiddie-porn images and days ago dropped their forced-decryption legal battle. It’s allegedly enough illicit porn to put Feldman away for decades, if he’s found guilty.

Encryption is becoming more and more mainstream, it’s built into every major operating system by default. Privacy isn’t just for geeks anymore, and is not evidence of criminal behavior. I have a feeling that these kinds of cases will become more and more common in the near future.